Maintenance of the proper pressure within tires is important because under-inflated tires can lead to reduced fuel economy, increased tread wear, and reduced vehicle safety. Despite the benefits of maintaining proper tire pressure, surveys have found that most drivers do not regularly check their tires at least once a month. As a result, vehicles are being outfitted with tire pressures sensors placed within the tires to detect whether the pressure inside each of the tires falls below a certain level, such as 80% of the placard pressure listed for the tire. When the tire pressure is detected to fall below the level, an indicator on the dashboard is lit to inform the driver that one or more of the tires are under-inflated.
It is desirable for a tire pressure monitoring system to be accurate, not only in avoiding failures in detecting under-inflated tires (“false negatives”), but also in avoiding incorrect warnings that the tires are under-inflated (“false positives”). False positive readings can be pernicious because the erroneous readings often disappear when the driver measures the tire pressure with a pen gauge, leading some drivers to ignore the low-tire pressure warnings altogether or bring the vehicle to a dealer at a cost of time, money, and the loss of the use of the vehicle.
Thus, there is a need for accurate measurement of tire pressure in a tire pressure monitoring system. Moreover, there is a need for improving the accuracy of existing tire pressure monitoring systems without significantly increasing their cost.